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    <title>Help On LaTeX Declarations</title>
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<h3>Hypertext Help with LaTeX</h3>

<h2>Declarations</h2>

<p>A declaration is a LaTeX command that does not act on an
    argument, but which changes the way LaTeX prints the following
    text or which changes the value or meaning of some <a
            href="ltx-17.html">command</a> or
    <a href="ltx-3.html">counter</a>.</p>

<h3>Scope</h3>

<p>The <em>scope</em> of a declaration begins with the
    declaration command itself and is ended by the first right brace
    (<tt>}</tt>) or <tt>\end{}</tt> command whose matching left
    brace (<tt>{</tt>) or <tt>\begin{}</tt> precedes the
    declaration. However, the <tt>\begin{}</tt> and <tt>\end{}</tt>
    of environments you create yourself, for example, with the
    <tt><a href="ltx-19.html">\newenvironment</a></tt> command, do
    not count for calculating the scope of declarations.</p>

<p>The declaration is in effect within its scope, exept that it
    may be countermanded by another declaration whose scope is a
    subset.</p>

<p>However, some declarations are <em>global</em>; they are in
    effect until countermanded by another declaration. They include</p>

<ul>
    <li><tt><a href="ltx-195.html">\addtocounter</a></tt></li>
    <li><tt><a href="ltx-271.html">\newcounter</a></tt></li>
    <li><tt><a href="ltx-310.html">\setcounter</a></tt></li>
    <li><tt><a href="ltx-137.html">\pagenumbering</a></tt></li>
    <li><tt><a href="ltx-140.html">\thispagestyle</a></tt></li>
    <li><tt><a href="ltx-87.html">\newlength</a></tt></li>
    <li><tt><a href="ltx-277.html">\newsavebox</a></tt></li>
    <li><tt><a href="ltx-20.html">\newtheorem</a></tt></li>
</ul>

<p>Every declaration has an
    <a href="ltx-27.html">environment</a> of the same name. If
    <tt>\decl</tt> is a declaration command, then</p>

<pre>
    {\decl .... }
</pre>

<p>can also be effected by</p>

<pre>
    \begin{decl} .... \end{decl}
</pre>

<p>If the declaration takes arguments these become additional
    arguments of the <tt>\begin</tt> command.</p>

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<p>
    See also <a href="ltx-27.html">Environments</a><br>
    Return to <a href="ltx-2.html">LaTeX Table of Contents</a>
</p>

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<address>
    Revised 16 Nov 1995.
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